


The Other Watsford Girl

by LucyCrewe11 (Raphaela_Crowley)



Category: H2O: Just Add Water
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Family Drama, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26743636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raphaela_Crowley/pseuds/LucyCrewe11
Summary: Cleo discovers a dark secret that has long been kept from her. A story which might just change everything she knows, including own her identity, and what she believed to be true about the old mermaids.
Relationships: Gracie/Max (h2o), Lewis McCartney/Cleo Sertori
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. Cleo was adopted

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in early 2009; edits have not been made since then.

Cleo Sertori hummed to herself as she fed her fish. She loved her little sea-creatures and took care of them in an almost motherly fashion. She smiled and praised them if she felt they needed or deserved it and wept when they died and had to be flushed away. The only trouble was that now that she was a mermaid, taking care of her fish was a little harder. If so much as a drop of water seeped through her gloves or if a fish happened to jump up and splash a little water on her, she instantly fell to the floor and her tail formed. Oh well, they all had to make sacrifices as Emma was always saying.

A merry little tune rang through the room. Cleo knew it was her cell phone going off. The caller ID said, 'EMMA GILBERT'. Speak of the devil. She reached over and hit, 'Accept incoming call'.

"Hey Em." Cleo said, putting the fish food back on the shelf where it belonged.

"Hi, I was just calling to ask about the paper for English class." Emma stammered guiltily into the phone.

That was a switch! Usually Emma was the one who had to tell both her and their other friend, Rikki Chadwick what the assignment was. All Cleo managed to say to that was, "Huh?"

"I know, I know." Emma's voice moaned into the phone. "It's just I've been having an off day and I lost three of my school notebooks. I tore my room apart to find them and they weren't anywhere so I can only assume I left them at school and it's Saturday so I can't look for them there until Monday which means if the paper's due Monday I wont have it ready in time." Her voice started to border on hysterical.

"Emma, it's alright." Cleo assured her. "The paper isn't due until next week."

Emma stopped hyperventilating. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure." Cleo said, looking at the calendar on the wall behind her.

"Okay, thanks." Emma sounded beyond relieved. "See you later, bye."

"Okay, bye." Cleo hung up and put the phone in her purse. Then she grabbed her coat and headed downstairs.

Mr. Sertori was sitting at the kitchen table with one hand over his face and a piece of paper in his other hand. He looked really stressed. Cleo wondered if it was another bill. Their mother used to take care of the bills before she left them and sometimes Mr. Sertori found it hard to keep up. Cleo always made it a point to be cheerful and strong around him when he seemed down.

"Hey, dad." She chirped in friendly tone.

"Hello, Cleo." Mr. Sertori looked at her, clearly holding back tears as he forced a smile.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Cleo couldn't help but ask. He couldn't be this upset about a bill. Maybe he'd found an old love letter from mum. That would explain it. She peered over at the piece of paper he was holding. "What's that?"

Mr. Sertori hastily folded up the paper. "Nothing, sweetheart. Don't worry about it." He looked at the clock. "Shouldn't you be heading off to school?"

"It's Saturday." Cleo reminded him.

"Saturday, of course." He shook his head. His mind was evidently on something else and he wasn't even thinking about what he was saying.

"Dad, is everything alright?" Cleo tried again.

He shot her another fake smile. "Of course it is." he looked at the clock again and then back at her. "Why don't you go spend the day with Rikki and Emma?"

His suggestion surprised her. Usually he complained that she spend too much time with her friends and not enough with her family. It used to make her feel guilty but she had grown sort of numb to it over time. Still, she could tell that some time alone was what her father needed right now.

"Alright." Cleo agreed, not even bothering to grab breakfast. "I guess I'll just go then." She wondered if he was going to say anything else and walked to the door as slowly as possible just in case. She reached the door knob. "Okay, I'll leaving now."

"Alright, sweetheart. Have fun." Mr. Sertori called after her.

She shrugged, opened the door, and stepped outside. What in the world could have made her father so sad? Why did he seem so distant? She walked slowly by herself, enjoying the feel of the warm spring sun on her shoulders.

Suddenly someone came behind her and put their hands over her eyes. "Guess who?"

"Lewis?" Cleo pretended to be genuinely confused even though she knew for sure it was him.

"In the flesh." Lewis took his hands off her eyes and came in front of her. "Cleo, what's wrong?" He could tell she wasn't quite herself.

"I don't know." Cleo told him, reaching up to fiddle with the locket that hung from her neck-more pleased than ever that Lewis had gotten it back from Charlotte for her-as she spoke. "It's my dad. He's acting really...strange..."

"Strange how?" Lewis asked her.

"He was looking at a piece of paper this morning and it was like he didn't want me to be around or something...He just seemed so different..."

"A bill?" Lewis suggested.

"I thought of that already." Cleo shook her head. "He was on the verge of tears, Lewis. It's not a bill."

"I don't know what to tell you." Lewis sighed apologetically.

"I don't think there's much you could say." She pointed out.

Lewis nodded and put his arm around her shoulders. "Do you want to go to the juice net and maybe grab something to eat?"

"Well I didn't have breakfast, so sure." Cleo said, walking along with him.

"Hey." Cleo waved when she saw Rikki sitting in one of the booths in the juice net.

"Hey." Rikki waved back.

"Where's Emma?" Lewis asked her.

"Working." Rikki rolled her eyes towards the cold room.

Cleo and Lewis sat down across from her. "So how are things?" Lewis asked as he eased into his seat.

"Fine." Rikki said monosyllabically, as she stirred her straw around in her half-melting smoothie.

"Are we still going swimming later?" Cleo wanted to know.

"I don't see why we wouldn't." Rikki told her. "Unless Emma has to take on another shift." Even she could see that there was something wrong with Cleo. "What's wrong?"

"It's my dad..." Cleo explained the whole story again.

Rikki looked like she was in deep thought then she shrugged to herself. "Beats me."

"I know, it's so frustrating." Cleo moaned, putting her hand to her forehead.

"What is?" Emma asked, coming out of the cold room.

"Something's wrong with her father." Lewis told Emma.

"Are you sure it's not a bill?" Emma knew that it usually was something to do with money.

"Pretty sure." Cleo insisted. For reasons unknown even to herself, Cleo found her eyes drifting to the other side of the cafe where a nice-looking middle aged man sat with his cell phone pressed against his ear. He had dark hair with a little bit of gray in it and pale white skin. He sort of reminded Cleo of Charlotte's grandmother, Gracie Watsford who had been one of the three original mermaids.

"Yes, I understand what a closed adoption means." The man said softly into his phone. "but I really want to see her. I know I'm sixteen years too late...but...well I understand. But are you sure? Look, don't you think she has a right to know? Well if she says she doesn't want to see me _then_ I promise I will go away and never come back. I came here to find the missing parts of my life. My father and my daughter. It means the world to me. Alright, we'll play it by ear then. Thank you, goodbye." He sighed heavily and hung up.

"Tough day?" Ash asked him, handing him a juice.

"You have no idea." The man said with a grateful smile. He reached into his wallet. "How much do I owe you?"

"It's on the house, mate." Ash said kindly. He could tell the man needed something to go right in his life even if it was something as small as a free drink.

"Do you know a Max K. Hamilton?" The man asked him.

"The name sounds familiar." Ash admitted. He looked over at Lewis and called, "Isn't Max Hamilton the name of that fellow you used to share research with?"

"Yes, that's him." Lewis said.

The man stood up and walked over to them. "Do you know where I can find him?"

"What do you need to see him about?" Lewis asked wondering if this man could be trusted or not.

"It's personal." the man said, not unkindly.

Cleo wasn't sure why, but she liked him. She felt as if she knew him from somewhere before and knew for certain that he could be trusted. "He lives in a little house on the beach." She explained how to get there.

"Thank you so much." The man said gratefully. "you have no idea what this means to me." With that, he left the juice net.

"Are you sure that was such a good idea?" Emma asked Cleo. "What if he wants to know about the mermaids?"

"Max wont tell him anything." Lewis reminded them.

"He told Charlotte a heck of a lot." Rikki snapped.

"But that's only because she was Gracie's granddaughter." Cleo pointed out. "He's probably learned his lesson by now."

"Let's hope so." Rikk muttered, mostly to herself.

That evening when Cleo went home she found her father sitting on the couch with that same distant look in his eyes from that morning. "Cleo, please have a seat, we have to talk about something."

"If this is about me not doing so well in science it's because-" Cleo blurted out before she could help herself.

"No it's not about school." Mr. Sertori assured her.

"Is it about this morning?" Cleo asked, taking a seat beside him on the couch.

Mr. Sertori nodded. "Yes, Cleo. That's exactly what it's about."

Cleo fiddled with the edge of her shirt not knowing why she felt so nervous. Her father was taking deep breaths and clearly still holding back tears.

"Cleo, you know I love you no matter what..." He started. "But there's something you should know. Your mother and I well...we had a little trouble having a child during our first years of marriage the doctor didn't know what was wrong and we ended up deciding to adopt...and we took in a beautiful baby."

Cleo crinkled her forehead feeling very much like a small child hearing a confusing fairytale for the first time.

"A baby named, Cleo." He said finally.

"You have another girl named Cleo?" Cleo blurted out stupidly.

"No sweetheart." Mr. Sertori put his hand on her's. "You don't understand. You were that baby. You were adopted, Cleo."

Cleo's eyes widened in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

Mr. Sertori looked down at his feet, trying not to cry. "I'm so sorry we didn't tell you sooner."

Cleo felt tears prick her eyes and roll freely down her cheeks. "So am I."


	2. Agreeing to meet him

"Cleo, it's not that we wanted to keep it from you." Mr. Sertori said gently. "We just didn't want you to feel strange about it. You're mother and I were going to tell you when you turned sixteen."

"I _am_ sixteen." Cleo said bitterly. Hadn't her father been paying attention?

"I know." Mr. Sertori said. "Let me finish, please." He reached up and wiped his eyes again. Cleo winced. She hadn't meant to hurt him. But why was he telling her this now? "After the divorce your mother and I felt that it would be too much for you too handle all at once. We talked it over and decided that we would wait until you were maybe eighteen and things were a bit more stable for you."

Cleo gulped, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. It refused to go away.

"But something happened. Your biological father contacted me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper that he had hidden from her earlier. "He says he wants to meet you." He unfolded the letter and handed it to his daughter.

Cleo's eyes widened as they passed over words and sentences like, 'I'm coming into town tomorrow', 'Would it be alright if I stopped by?', 'You can contact me with the phone number enclosed in the post script. Call any time, day or night'. Her tears made the words blur and she couldn't read the rest of the letter. She didn't see the name at the end. Somehow it didn't matter. Yes he was technically her father but she didn't know him. She'd always thought Mr. Sertori was her father up until today.

"Is he coming here?" Cleo finally managed to ask.

"Not if you don't want him to." Mr. Sertori put his arm around her shoulders. "I talked to him today on the phone and he promised to go away if you didn't want to meet him. He just wanted you to have the option."

"Dad..." Cleo said weakly, feeling numb as though in a dream. "Why did they give me up? Do you know?"

Mr. Setori looked pained for a moment. "Cleo, I don't know how much you want to hear about it."

"Everything." Cleo said, her voice a little stronger now. "I want to know the truth."

He closed his eyes, groaned inwardly, and then opened them again. " _They_ didn't give you up. Your mother died in child birth and your father was a mess about it. I don't know all the details but from what I heard he could just barely take care of himself never mind a baby. He left you with your birth mother's parents who decided they were too old to take care of you and put you up for adoption. Your father claims that the closed adoption wasn't what he wanted but somehow or other, your grandparents talked him into it saying it was what was best for you."

"Oh." Cleo felt like she had been punched in the stomach.

"But sweetheart, just because you're adopted doesn't mean anything is going to change." Mr. Sertori tried to comfort her. "You're always loved and you'll always be my daughter-and your mother's daughter-no matter what."

"Cleo's adopted?" Kim had just entered the house and she heard what he had just said. "I _knew_ it! I knew I wasn't related to _her_."

Mr. Sertori looked incredulously at his younger daughter. She could be a bit harsh sometimes but this was beyond uncalled for. "Go to your room, Kim." His voice was weary but he meant to be firm.

Kim turned up her nose and looked very much like she was going to say something nasty but marched up the stairs before uttering so much as a word.

"Do you want to meet him?" Mr. Sertori gently asked Cleo.

"I don't know." Cleo mumbled to her feet.

"He's not going anywhere just yet." Mr. Sertori told her. "you think on it for a day or two, alright?"

"Alright." Cleo's voice was barely even a whisper now. She stood up to leave the room.

"I love you." Mr. Sertori reminded her.

"Love you too, dad." Cleo managed to say before racing upstairs desperate to reach her room and collapse on her bed.

When she reached her bedroom, she found the door wide open and saw much to her deep exasperation Kim was going through one of her draws.

"What are you doing?" Cleo demanded, storming into the room.

"Looking for a belt to borrow." Kim shrugged.

"Ever thought of asking?" Cleo snapped. As if it wasn't bad enough that she'd found out that the family that raised her wasn't even her own, she had to deal with Kim being...well, Kim.

"It's more my house than yours." Kim retorted meanly.

Cleo knew what she meant by that. "Get out of my room."

"What? At least I have a birth right to be in here." Kim said smugly.

Without stopping to think, Cleo smacked her across the face.

"Dad!" Kim whined, running out of the room as Cleo slammed the door behind her. "Cleo hit me."

Curling up into a fetal position on her bed, Cleo wrapped her arms around a pillow and cried into it. She wasn't sure why. Was it because she was angry? Maybe. But angry with whom? She wasn't really upset with her father. Yes, she wished he'd told her the truth sooner but it wasn't as if he planned to keep it from her for ever. She was furious with Kim but really it could only be expected. Kim had always been selfish. The one time she suspected Cleo of being a mermaid, she'd tried to expose her. A few fibs and excuses later, she had been talked out of her belief, but still. Maybe she was just angry with herself for not being born into the right family. It was stupid to feel that way seeing as she didn't have any control over it but she couldn't help but feel bitter all the same.

She laid there feeling sorry, angry, lost, cold, and bitter for a couple of hours until she remembered that she had plans with Rikki and Emma. She didn't really want to see them right now. She didn't want to see anyone. But a trip to Mako seemed reassuring like a silk ribbon attaching her to familiar unchanged things. She stood up, walked out of her room, tip-toed down the stairs and quietly turned the door knob. No one saw her leave. She'd done this many times before but she felt a different now. She felt almost as though she was running away even though she wasn't.

She was at the beach before Rikki and Emma showed up. She couldn't seem to make her legs stay still long enough to wait for them. They could just meet her at Mako. Without hesitation, she dived into the water. Her long golden tail formed and she flapped it hard to get the most speed out of it. Once she was at the moon pool, she pulled herself out and dried off. Her legs reformed and she sat on a rock looking down at the ripples forming in the pool below her.

Ten minutes later two heads surfaced, following by long golden tails.

"Cleo, why didn't you wait for us?" Emma asked.

Cleo looked up at them, her eyes shinning with fresh tears. "Sorry."

"What's wrong?" Rikki swam closer to the rock she was seated on.

"I found out what my dad was so worried about." Cleo said softly almost in a mumble.

"What was it?" Emma reached for her friend's hand to comfort her.

"I was adopted." Cleo gulped back the lump which still refused to go away. "My biological father wanted to meet me. That's what the note was about."

"Are you sure?" Emma pulled herself out of the water and sat beside her.

"My dad told me everything." Cleo explained. "And now I have to decide if I want to meet this man or not."

"I knew it couldn't have been a bill." Rikki sighed. "My dad has more money problems than yours does and he never gets like that."

"I'm sorry, Cleo." Emma put her arm around her.

"What's there to be sorry about?" Cleo shrugged. "It's not like it's going to change anything. I might have a whole family I never even knew about. I wonder if any of them every think about me, besides my dad I mean."

"Everyone has secrets." Rikki reminded her. "I mean, it's not like you've told your father you're a mermaid."

"That's different," Cleo pointed out. "It doesn't really effect him in the way being adopted effects me."

"And how exactly does it effect you?" Rikki wanted to know.

"I'm not sure." Cleo whispered. "That's what scares me the most."

"It'll be alright." Emma told her.

"I smacked Kim today." Cleo announced randomly.

"She had it coming, the little brat." Rikki shrugged, clearly not very surprised.

"Why'd you do that?" Emma wanted to know. She would never smack her little brother Elliot but then, he was much more reasonable than Cleo's little sister Kim was.

"She mentioned the adoption and acted like it meant I wasn't even part of the family." Cleo explained, clenching her fists. "I think the real reason I hit her was because I'm so scared I might not be."

"Oh, Cleo!" Emma exclaimed. "That'll never happen. Your parents love you."

"Kim's just a twit." Rikki chimed in. "She's going to end up in jail when she grows up anyway."

Emma turned and glared at Rikki. "Not helping."

"I thought it was." Rikki insisted.

"So do you want to meet him?" Emma asked Cleo, ignoring Rikki's comment.

"In a way I do." Cleo admitted. "But at the same time...It's scares me like agreeing to see him makes it real. Like if I meet my real father I wont be Cleo Sertori anymore. If I don't, maybe I can act like nothing's changed."

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Rikki said almost gently. "Could you really pretend none of this ever happened?"

"I don't know." Cleo mumbled, more tears slid down her cheeks. "I just want it all to go away."

"But it wont." Rikki reminded her.

"I know that!" Cleo's tone was almost snappish now. "Don't you think I know that?"

"Maybe all you can do is agree to see him just once and hope for the best." Emma suggested.

That night, Cleo snuck back into the house unseen by both her father and Kim who were both asleep in bed by that time. She crawled into her own bed and laid awake for hours tossing and turning. In the morning, she was tired and weary but she had come to a decision.

"Dad," She said as she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

He looked up from the fishing magazine that Cleo could tell he was only pretending to read because he hadn't turned the page in over twenty minutes. "Yes?"

"I think I'd like to meet him." Cleo managed, fiddling with her own fingers as she spoke.

He didn't need to ask what 'him' she meant. He knew who she was talking about. "Alright, I'll call today and arrange something."

Cleo took a deep breath and then swallowed her orange juice in one big gulp.


	3. Eddie Watsford

Cleo had never been more thankful that Kim almost always had plans on the weekends. It was going to be hard enough to meet this man without her snotty little sister sticking her rat face into it. If she had known that Cleo was meeting him, she would have bailed on her plans but Mr. Sertori knew better than to say anything about it to his youngest daughter.

He was coming over at one. It was 12:59 now. Cleo glanced at the clock nervously then quickly looked away in pretend-indifference. What would he be like? Would they get along? What would they say to each other? Would she regret agreeing to meet him?

The door bell rang. Mr. Sertori sighed deeply, pulled himself up from his easy chair, and went over to answer it.

Cleo could hear them speaking although she couldn't see him yet. His voice sounded kind of familiar. Was it possible she somehow remembered it? No, that was just silly. She must have only imagined that it seemed familiar. Maybe because she was so nervous. Yes, that had to be it.

"Good to see you, Mr. Watsford." Mr. Sertori said in a tone that didn't actually sound very pleased to see him at all. "Cleo's in the living room...no not that way, that's the kitchen...yes, this way."

 _Watsford_? His last name was Watsford? That was Charlotte's last name! It had been Gracie's name too. Wait, if he was her father...oh my god, that meant she might possibly be related to Charlotte! Ew. Then again, maybe it was just the name. Maybe somewhere in the world it was as common as Smith. She knew it wasn't likely but that vain string of hope was all she had to hold onto at the moment.

They turned into the living room and Cleo saw him at last. Her eyes widened with shock. She _did_ know him. Sort of. He was the man from the juice net. The one who had been asking about Max.

"You?" Cleo blurted out. She hoped she didn't sound rude, it was just such a surprise.

The man blinked at her in confusion for a moment. "That's right, we met before...at that little restaurant..."

"You two know each other?" Mr. Sertori asked them.

"Not well." Cleo stammered. "I mean, I've seen him before..."

"I can't believe I didn't even know my own daughter." The man shook his head as though deeply disgusted with himself.

"Don't beat yourself up about it, Mate." Mr. Sertori tried to be upbeat in tone but was failing pretty miserably. "You haven't seen her since she was a baby, it isn't likely that you'd recognize her."

"I know...I just..." the man sighed again. "Let me start over."

"Okay." Cleo managed a weak smile.

He stretched out his hand. "Hi, Cleo. I'm your uh...father..."

Cleo looked dumbly at his hand for a moment and then shook it awkwardly.

The man broke into a slight chuckle. "I guess that wasn't much better."

Cleo's smile widened a little. "What's your name?"

"Eddie Watsford." The man introduced himself.

"Eddie." Cleo repeated.

"Yeah, a lot of people think it's a nick name but it's actually not..." He felt sort of moronic talking about his name but he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I'm Cleo." Cleo felt her cheeks flush at the stupidity of that comment. Of course she was Cleo! He knew that already!

He didn't seem to mind though, all he did was smile at her again and say. "Yes, I know."

"I'll let the two of your catch up." Mr. Sertori decided, putting on his hat and coat. He hadn't been planning on leaving but seeing them together made him feel as though they needed to talk alone. So he figured he could go for a short walk and come back. He looked for Cleo's expression to see if she would be alright with that.

She didn't need him there. "Okay, Dad."

"I can stay if you need me to." He added.

"No, it's alright." Cleo said in a low only half-sure voice. "you can go, if you want."

Mr. Sertori hesitated for a moment. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Not only did Cleo not know this man, he himself did not know this man. Just why had he come all of a sudden after sixteen years? He decided to go our but not actually leave the block itself.

"So..." Eddie Watsford fumbled for the right words to say. "You have a nice home here."

"Yes." Cleo said monosyllabically.

"You seem to be doing well." Eddie noted.

"Yes." She didn't know what else to say.

Without warning, tears filled Eddie's eyes. He mumbled something along the lines of, "I'm so sorry." but seemed to be saying it more to himself than to Cleo.

"Are you alright?" Cleo checked.

"No." He admitted freely. "No dear, I'm not. I can't believe how much time has gone by...I never visited...I never looked for you...I'm a horrible father. Your mother, she would be so disappointed in me." He looked very much like he was about to start crying again.

"What was she like?" Cleo wanted to know.

"Who?" Eddie blinked at her in confusion.

"Mother." Cleo clarified.

His eyes grew a different kind of misty as well as distant as though his mind and heart were far away. "Beautiful. Very Beautiful. Not to mention she had the sweetest disposition I've ever known." He smiled to himself for a moment. "Once early on in our marriage, I came home very late I didn't call or anything. I thought she was going to be furious with me. But do you know what she said when she saw me come through the door?"

"What did she say?" Cleo asked.

He laughed good-naturedly to himself. "She said, 'Thank goodness, you're alright. I was worried.' Then she hugged me and asked if I was hungry for any dinner. Just like that. Didn't even make a single comment about how cold it was other than, 'would you like me to heat it up for you?' She rarely ever raised her voice. I think we only had one big fight the whole time we were married."

"What was it about?" Cleo asked, even thought she felt it was really none of her business.

"Gosh, I can't remember." He chuckled. "We made up in less than an hour, anyway."

"You must really miss her." Cleo said softly.

"You have no idea." Eddie whispered. He looked at her again. "Even more so, seeing you."

"Do I look like her?" Cleo wondered aloud.

He smiled at her again. "Very much so."

"Why did you come looking for me now?" Cleo asked, finally getting the most important question out in the open.

He looked a little guilty for a moment. "Cleo, I want you to know something. I was adopted too."

"You were?" Cleo wondered if this meant she wasn't related to the Watsfords after all. Wouldn't that be something of a relief. "By the Watsfords?"

"No." He told her. "By a little family that went by the last name of 'Brooks'. It wasn't supposed to be for ever. At least, that's what they told me when I asked why I couldn't see my mother." He paused for a moment. "I barely remember her. I was three when they took me away from her."

"Why did they do that?" Cleo wanted to know.

"I didn't know it at the time but it was because it turned out my mother's first husband was still alive. Everyone thought he was dead and mother secretly married someone else. She didn't want it to be a secret but she thought everyone would think she had no respect for her dead husband if they found out. I know that I came from the second man she married and I know his name. And I know she went back to the first man, and that his family forced her to give me up." Eddie looked angry as well as sad now.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Cleo blinked at him wondering what the point of the story was.

"Because I found out that when I was sixteen, my father came looking for me. The family I lived with didn't let him see me. But just knowing he cared enough to try...I don't know, it changed how I saw him in my mind. And I thought about you-I swear not a day goes by that I don't wonder if I made the right choice giving you away-and I realized unless I came looking for you, you would never have that comfort of knowing that I at least cared that much." Eddie explained, cracking his knuckles as he spoke.

"What about your mother?" Cleo asked him. "Did she ever..."

His expression turned slightly bitter. "She wrote me letters every day for years. The family never gave any of them to me until the day I moved out."

"What was her name?" Cleo felt her heart beating faster as if on the verge of something important.

"Mother's name?" He double checked if that was what she wanted to know.

Cleo nodded.

"Gracie." He whispered. "Gracie Watsford."

Cleo felt as though she could barely breathe. "And your father?"

"Max K. Hamilton."


	4. Two Photos

Cleo felt like her insides were screaming. She didn't know how to feel. If Eddie was telling the truth, the locket around her neck didn't only belong to Charlotte's grandmother; this made Gracie Cleo's grandmother too. The only thing was, Lewis had once mentioned Charlotte's grandfather; he wasn't Max. He must have been Gracie's first husband.

Questions rang through Cleo's mind. If Gracie and Max had always loved each other, why had she married someone else to begin with? Why had Eddie been sent to live with a family that wasn't his own instead of with Max? Max wouldn't have shunned him, Cleo was sure of that. Also, she realized this made Eddie Charlotte's half uncle (She preferred not to think of the fact that she was her half cousin). Did she know about him? Did her mother?

"Cleo, are you alright?" Eddie asked, noticing the stricken look on her face.

"Your parents were Max and Gracie..." Cleo whispered, mostly to herself. She reached up and touched her silver locket tenderly as she often did when she was nervous. It reassured her somehow.

Eddie's brows sank deep into his forehead. "You know them?"

"I know Max, I told you where he lived." Cleo reminded him. She wondered if she should tell him that she knew quite a bit about Gracie as well. "Max made this locket for your mother." She lifted it up to show him. "She threw it away fifty years ago."

"How did you get it?" Eddie wanted to know.

"My friend Emma found it and let me keep it because I liked it so much." Cleo explained, stroking it again as though it were a pet cat rather than a piece of jewelry. "There's two others similar to it, like a set. Max made those too. Emma and my other friend, Rikki have them."

Something inside Eddie clicked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two black and white photos. One was of Gracie standing on the pier next to Julia and Louise. All three of them were wearing the lockets. The other was of a slightly older Gracie. Her stomach was rounder, Cleo assumed it was because she was pregnant. She was wearing the locket there too. But how was that possible? From what Max had told her, Cleo knew that Gracie had been under eighteen when she'd thrown the locket away. And yet, here she was wearing it again. Was it possible that he had made another one for her? But it didn't look like another one, it looked just like the one Cleo was wearing now.

"You are wearing your grandmother's locket." Eddie said in a tone of wonder. "How about that?"

Cleo took another look at the pregnant photo of Gracie. "This doesn't make sense."

"Mr. Sertori didn't have that talk with you yet?" Eddie half-joked.

"No, not that!" Cleo exclaimed. "The locket! These photos are years apart."

"So?" Eddie didn't understand what she was getting at.

"Gracie was somewhere between sixteen and eighteen when she got rid of the locket." Cleo explained, forgetting that he might want to know where she had learned all of this from and might stumble onto her secret. She was in too much shock for that thought to cross her mind. "She's looks like she's nearly thirty here."

"Are you sure it's the same locket?" Eddie asked.

"Pretty sure." Cleo couldn't tell which color stone was on the locket Gracie was wearing. Maybe Louise or Julia had loaned theirs to her? That didn't make much sense either but it was still something to go on. A new thought came to her. "Have you seen Max yet?"

Eddie shook his head. "He wasn't home when I stopped by. I plan to go by again before I leave."

"Can I come with you?" Cleo asked, glancing down at the photo of them at the pier. She had to get some answers.

He thought it over for a moment. "Sure. I'm going by tomorrow we could meet at the juice net."

"Okay." Cleo agreed.

He could tell she didn't want to give the photographs up just yet. "You can keep them for now."

Mr. Sertori returned home just as Eddie Watsford was leaving. Cleo looked drained and bemused.

"How'd it go?" Mr. Sertori asked her.

"Fine." Cleo sighed softly to herself. She poured a glass of orange juice but forgot to drink it, leaving it out on the counter for hours until someone noticed it. "It went fine."

She walked up to her room, pulled out her cell phone and called Rikki, Emma, and Lewis on the four way. "Can you come over? There's something I have to show you."

Less than half and hour later, Emma, Rikki, and Lewis were all gathered in her room.

"Look at this." Cleo thrust the two photographs at them.

"Aren't those the old mermaids?" Emma gasped, looking at the one of them on the pier.

"Charlotte's grandmother." Lewis remarked motioning to the second photo.

"My grandmother." Cleo told them.

"What?" Rikki and Emma gasped at the same time.

"My father's name is Eddie Watsford. She's his mother." Cleo explained in an almost breathless voice.

"Wait..." Emma pointed to the locket Gracie was wearing in the second photo. "Why does she still have the locket in this one?"

"I don't know." Cleo shrugged. "I've been trying to guess how she possibly could have gotten it back..."

"but if she'd gotten it back, Emma never would have found it." Lewis pointed out.

"Unless she threw it back there again." Rikki suggested.

"It's just so confusing." Cleo mused. "I don't know what to think or how to feel about it."

"I can't believe you and Charlotte have the same Grandmother." Lewis said suddenly.

"Want to be even more surprised?" Cleo asked them.

Lewis looked to her expectedly.

"Max is my grandfather."

"But I thought Gracie married someone else." Emma said, crinkling her brow in confusion.

"She did." Cleo told them. "but I guess she thought he was dead or something and went back to Max for a while."

"Do you think that's what he means when he says he lost her?" Rikki wondered aloud.

"I don't know." Cleo admitted. "But tomorrow, I'm going to ask him.

"Do you think Charlotte knows about Eddie?" Emma asked, looking over at her own reflection in the mirror on the other side of the room.

"I don't think so." Lewis remembered Charlotte talking a lot about her grandmother, a little about her grandfather, and she mentioned one uncle but his name wasn't Eddie. Also he was an uncle from the other side of the family.

"Funny how she thought she was so much better than us because of her relation to Gracie and you were her granddaughter all along." Rikki pointed out.

"I wonder if Max would have told her so much if he'd known that Gracie had another granddaughter." Emma pondered aloud.

"All I know is that someone's been keeping something from us." Cleo said finally. "Something Miss Chatham and Max haven't told us." She clenched her jaw tightly and looked back at the two photographs which were now spread out side by side on the bed. "And I'm going to find out what it is."


	5. Max tells all he knows

"Are you sure you want to do this, Cleo?" Lewis asked as he and Cleo walked hand in hand to the juice net where she was supposed to be meeting Eddie.

"What other choice is there?" Cleo pointed out. "Max is a friend or ours-sort of. How am I supposed to face him again knowing that he's my grandfather and never say anything? If I don't go to see him with Eddie now, I don't know how else I could tell him the truth-if he doesn't already know."

"I was just thinking...maybe there's a reason Max didn't want us to know what really happened to Gracie. Maybe we aren't supposed to know." Lewis sighed, squeezing her hand a little tighter.

Cleo squeezed back. "This coming from the scientist boy who's always trying to find out why we're mermaids."

"Well, that's different." Lewis forced a cheerful grin.

Once they arrived at the Juice net, He leaned in and kissed her goodbye on the lips. "See you later."

"See you later, Lewis." Cleo's voice was nearly a whisper as she pulled away from him and walked up the wooden deck leading into the juice net. She glanced back at him once more as if searching for some kind of reassurance.

He forced another smile and mouthed, "Go on."

Eddie sat at the counter making small talk with Ash. The conversation came to a halt when Cleo walked it. She stepped gingerly in small timid steps looking both ways until she saw Eddie. He stood up and walked over to her.

"Hello, Cleo." He seemed pleased to see her.

"Hi d-Eddie." Cleo couldn't believe she'd almost called him 'dad'. She'd only just met him yesterday! Mr. Sertori was-and would always be-her dad no matter where she'd really come from.

They talked about different things while they walked down to the cove where Max's house was located. Eddie wanted to hear stories of Cleo's childhood growing up. He seemed fascinated by them; even the ones that Cleo herself thought were very boring and wondered why she was bothering to tell them in the first place. He didn't say anything when she mentioned a mean thing or two that Kim had said or done to her but he did let out a disagreeable snort when she told him Kim's reaction to finding out about the adoption. After that, He wanted to hear all about Cleo's friends. She told him all about Rikki and Emma but was careful not to say anything about them being mermaids.

"It's nice that you three are friends." Eddie commented. "You all seem so different. You wouldn't expect that you would have anything in common as a group."

"We have a some very _important_ things in common." Cleo blurted out almost harshly. "And Emma and I were friends for a long time, I mean she was busy but-"

Eddie turned a little red in the face and looked down. "I've offended you, I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

Cleo realized she over-reacted a little. "It's alright. You've been great. Really." She nodded up at him encouragingly.

"I guess he's not home again." Eddie sighed, knocking on the door of the little shack where Max lived but getting no answer.

"He's fishing." Cleo told him.

"How do you know that?" Eddie raised an eyebrow at her.

Cleo pointed to a sign on the side of the door that said, 'gone fishing'.

"Oh." Eddie chuckled, starting to walk off the porch.

"That's him over there." Cleo pointed to an old man standing on the beach, casting his lure into the ocean. She called over to him. "Max!"

He turned around and smiled at her. "Hello, Cleo." He lifted a hand off his fishing pole and waved to her. "How are you?"

She and Eddie fast walked over to him.

"Who's this?" Max asked in a friendly tone, glancing over at Eddie.

Eddie reached into his back pants pocket and pulled out a slight crumbled folded up piece of paper. He fumbled to get it unfolded quickly and handed it over to Max.

It was a birth certificate. Max's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and he looked up at Eddie incredulously. "Where did you get this?"

"That's me." Eddie blurted out, unsure of what else to say. "I'm your son."

Max's eyes filled with tears and he threw his arms around him, hugging him tightly. "My boy...I might have guessed it. You do remind me of your mother." His eyes shifted to the locket on Cleo's neck. "Gracie."

"There's more." Cleo said, taking a step forward. "I'm...Eddie's my father."

Max let go of his son and took a step closer to Cleo. "That means..."

"Yes." Eddie said softly. "She's Gracie's granddaughter." He lifted the paper up again. "And according to what it says here, she's your granddaughter too."

Later they all sat in Max's house while he explained everything to them.

When they were teenagers, Max and Gracie were inseparable sweethearts. Everyone expected them to grow up and marry each other and were more than a little surprised when they found out that they had broken up. There were a lot of different stories that floated around but the truth of course could never be told. It was because of a fight they'd had. Gracie was tired of being a mermaid and being around Max, she was never able to forget it. He was always telling her how wonderful her secret was and she didn't want it to be wonderful. She started pushing him away and ended up throwing the locket he'd made for her into the moon pool. And just like that, they were over.

Max got his own little house by the sea and fished for a living. Gracie moved away to a great city some where and made a name for herself. After giving up her tail tot he fifty year full moon, Gracie thought of going back to him but was sure he wouldn't want her anymore. She still loved him and he still loved her but the other was, it seemed, never to know. She went back to the city, for good this time.

Years later, Gracie was a widow. Her husband had been reported dead. She stood at his funeral dressed in a long black dress. She lifted her mesh black veil and spotted someone listening to the services in the distance. Max! What was here doing there? When the coffin had been lowered into the ground, Gracie quietly slipped away from her relatives and went over to him.

"Max, what are you doing here?" Gracie said her voice barely a whisper.

"I-I-" Max stammered for a moment before finally managing to say, "Your name was in the paper...I wanted to see if you were alright..."

"You came all this way to see if I was alright?" Gracie asked tilting her head and blinked at him in confusion.

Max looked a little hurt. "We're still friends, aren't we?"

"Yes, of course!" Gracie blurted out awkwardly.

"Oh good." He smiled at her.

She smiled back. "You haven't changed a bit."

After only a few weeks they decided to get married but Gracie was worried about what her former husband's family might say about her getting married so soon. Especially since she already had a one year old son (Charlotte's father). People might even think that Max wanted to marry her because the life insurance had left her with a good amount of money. So they kept it a secret. They had Eddie and were happy together until the former husband turned up alive. Gracie didn't want to leave Max but in the end she didn't have a choice. Max wanted to keep their son but because the family was trying to hide the fact that they had been married to begin with, they forced her to give Eddie up to another family.

Max sighed, wiping away a few stray tears as he finished telling the story. "And that's pretty much it."

"No it's not." Cleo took out the photo of pregnant Gracie wearing the locket. "How did she get the locket back?"

Max's brows sank into a deep frown in his forehead. He took the photo into his hands and peered down at it. "I never noticed she was wearing it here. How did she get it back?"

"She didn't wear it every day?" Cleo asked him.

"Not that I saw." Max looked very confused. "I thought she'd left it in the moon pool for fifty years untouched until Emma found it."

"But..." Cleo shook her head. Max seemed truthful. He didn't know how she had gotten the locket back. Who else might know? Maybe Miss Chatham? She decided she would ask her if she knew anything about it.


	6. Caught in a net

Cleo sat at edge of the moon pool with her tail sagging off into the rippling water. She wasn't expecting Emma or Rikki because she hadn't called them. They could show up at any moment but only if they took it upon themselves. Frankly, Cleo wasn't sure if she wanted them with her right now. She wanted to be alone to think over some things. She couldn't help but think that now she would never be able to look at her life the same way. Everything that had happened was different in her eyes now. She would always love the family she'd grown up with. Her mother, her father, and even Kim. But now she would never be free of wondering what life would have been like if her real parents had raised her. She was pretty sure she wouldn't change a thing. She was happy with her life but little nagging doubts that if she actually _could_ change her life, she might. In spite of what she might tell herself to sleep at night.

She hadn't seen Miss Chatham yet but she planned to speak with her soon. She only hoped Miss Chatham knew the answer to the mystery of Gracie's recovered locket because other than her, there was no one else to ask. If Julia had known, she had died with the secret.

The sun was setting. Cleo couldn't see it hovering above the moon pool anymore. Knowing Mr. Sertori would worry if she wasn't home in time for dinner, she dived into the water and swam out heading for home.

She happened to look over at a school of fish that were swimming away as if they were trying to escape doom's day itself. What were they running from exactly? A large fishing boat cast it's dark shadow along the bottom of the water.

Silly fish, Cleo thought, They see boats all the time. Why bother running? Unless of course they had figured out that most boats that came this way might have people trying to catch them. In which case, Smart fish.

Cleo shrugged to herself and made herself swim deeper so that she could be certain that no one peering over board would see her when she zoomed away from it as quickly as she could. She had never been that close to a boat as a mermaid before and was suddenly fearful? What if someone saw her? How was it she hadn't noticed the boat until the dark shadow had shown up too close to make a fast get away? No matter, she would just swim away from it now.

With one strong flap of her long golden tail she was certain that she would be miles away from the boat in no time when suddenly she felt thick rough material falling around her. Her fingers curled around it trying to push it away before her tail got tangled and pulled her down. It was a net! The fishermen on board had unwittingly caught her! No, this wasn't happening. This was a nightmare. Cleo closed her eyes for a moment then opened them again. The scene didn't change. She was still trapped. The more she struggled the more tangled she became. She had been stuck in a net one time before when trying to save a baby turtle but that time, Rikki and Emma had been there to cut the net away from her and pull her to safety. Now she was trapped on her own with no hope of being rescued.

The fishermen didn't pull up the net; feeling that it was full, they simply started the boat back for the shore and the net trailed along under the water.

Cleo couldn't fight anymore. She wondered how they would react when they saw her? They would probably ship her off to a lab somewhere. She would be in a zoo looked at by gaping humans who didn't turn into half-fish whenever they hit water. Normal people. She wondered if Gracie had ever been caught in a net before. If she had ever felt as afraid as Cleo was feeling now. If that was the case, she could understand why Gracie might not have wanted to be a mermaid anymore. Was being something enchantingly paranormal worth the high price tag? Sometimes Cleo had her doubts. At the moment she found herself envying Charlotte. She'd lost her tail. True, now she was nothing but another ordinary girl. She was alone with no locket, no tail, and no boyfriend but she at least was safe from the danger Cleo now found herself in.

The boat came to a stop. This was it. If Cleo had been a more religious person she might have muttered a prayer or two. As it was, she wasn't thinking about praying. She focused on the sudden cramp in her lower fin. It was painful but not as painful as the obvious upcoming revealing of her deepest secret.

The net started to rise up slowly. The fishermen weren't looking at the net though, they were too busy playing cards while the net was automatically pulled up with some new kind of fancy technology. The sun was even lower now. It was going to be dark in less than a few minutes. It didn't seem like anyone was on the pier.

Willing herself to open her eyes and look around, Cleo saw one person watching her with a sour expression on their nasty round pale face. Charlotte herself. She was there with her easel and painting supplies.

Much as she hated having to call to Charlotte of all people for help, Cleo didn't see what else she could do. "Charlotte!" She hissed to her cousin.

Charlotte packed up her painting things and walked away. She acted as if she hadn't heard Cleo speaking, leaving her to be caught in the net. She should have known Charlotte would be too bitter to be of any real help. She had always been selfish. Now it was only a matter of time until someone saw her and created a sensation of seeing a real live mermaid.

Suddenly Cleo heard a slight creak. It was the machine the fishermen were using to pull the net up. What would happen if part of it snapped? Would the net fall into the water? She would still be trapped but at least she wouldn't be visible to anyone who walked by. Flapping with her tail and pushing with all the strength her hands could muster up, she pulled savagely at the net. Two more creaks but not the snapping sound she needed to hear. She pushed harder than before. The net dug into her hands leaving a rug-burn like impression on them. They smarted terribly but she willed herself to keep pushing. With one final flick of the tail and one last push which cased one of her hands to spilt open and bleed, the snap was heard and the net slipped down into the harbor below.

The fishermen on the boat looked up at last. "What was that?" They wondered aloud.

"Dang," One of them exclaimed angrily. "The net strap's broken! Our boss is going to kill us!"

"What about getting the net back?" The other suggested.

"No point to that now." He answered. "No fish and the net's all messed up at the bottom I'll recon."

"What do you think snapped it?"

"I don't know."

"Did we catch a shark?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know anything! You're fired."

"You can't fire me!"

"I just did."

"You're not even my boss! We're co-workers!"

"Oh yeah. Well if I _was_ your boss, I'd fire you."

"Well you're not."

"Well if I was..."

"Oh shut up!"

Meanwhile Cleo felt herself being plunged into the water as a very fast speed and the weight of her long graceful tail pulled her down even faster. Her head hit the water and she blacked out.

When her eyes opened again, she was still underwater and still tangled in the net but she could see right above her some peering down into the murky water. Through the thick ripples she could just make out his face. It was Eddie. Without a word, he dived in.


	7. What really happened to Gracie

Eddie had been taking a walk along the pier to clear his head. He had just met his father and daughter. He liked them both and was glad he knew them, he only wished he'd met them sooner. None of it seemed fair. Max and Gracie didn't deserve to be torn apart. And he missed his own wife so much. Life was so bitter and yet, there there was something that kept it from being completely bleak. A glimmering hope that never faded, though it seemed to flicker sometimes.

Looking down into the water, he saw something that until that moment, he'd always believed was a myth. A half human girl, half fish. A mermaid with a long golden tail. She was trapped in a net at the bottom of the harbor. And even more remarkable her face looked exactly like his daughter.

He kicked off his shoes and dove into the water feeling very much like someone in a dream. Holding his breath he tugged at the knots and flipped the net in this place and that desperate to get her out of it. Just when he thought he would have to go get a knife and come back, he managed to open the top of it and lift Cleo out. He pulled her to the shore line and onto dry land away from the docks.

She blinked at him in amazement. "Da-Eddie?" She mumbled.

"Are you alright?" He asked gently. He looked down at her tail which was still formed because she was wet. "I mean, aside from the fish tail."

"Yeah.." Cleo sat up and put her hand to her forehead.

"How did this happen?" Eddie wanted to know.

"You wont tell anyone?" Cleo asked him to be sure.

"Of course not!" Eddie seemed rather offended that she would think otherwise.

She took a deep breath and told him everything about Mako and about how Rikki and Emma were mermaids too. She told him that Gracie and her friends had been mermaids and that Charlotte had been one too. He didn't say anything when she finished speaking he stared at her in wide-eyed amazement.

"Mother was a mermaid?" He mused in disbelief. "Like you are now?"

"Yes." Cleo said as her tail dried and turned back into legs. "Which is why we need to find out what really happened to her. If anybody knows."

A soft fluttery voice that did not belong to Eddie answered, "I know."

Looking up, they saw Miss Chatham coming towards them listening to every word they were saying.

"Louise." Eddie said, recalling the photo of her with his mother on the pier.

"Yes that's me." Louise sat down on the ground beside them. She gently eased down her tired old body to be on eye level with Eddie and Cleo. "It all started when we gave up our powers."

-Flashback-

The fifty year full moon was spilling over into the moon pool casting a bright silvery light on the water below. The three mermaids stood looking up at it for a moment. They all linked hands, preparing to jump in together.

"I don't think we should do this." Julia said suddenly, taking a step back from the moon pool.

"It's getting to be too much." Louise sighed, looking sadly at the glowing, bubbling water. "Oh, I will miss it so much."

"We've gone through too much to give it all up now." Juila decided, taking yet another step back and letting go of Louise's hand.

"No." Gracie was tired of living a double life. It was her in-ability to feel human which had torn her away from Max. She was sick of working about avoiding every drop of water she saw. Yes, being able to make water do whatever you wanted was wonderful, but it wasn't everything. It was time to give it up. She broke away from her friends and dived in.

"Gracie, don't!" Louise lunged after her, falling into the moon pool herself.

Julia, realizing that if she chose to stay a mermaid she would be on her own, jumped in behind them.

The moon pulled away their tails and powers forever. Julia and Louise swam out having wet legs for the first time in a long while. Before coming out, Gracie held her breath and swam a little distance under. She found her locket there and grabbed it by the chain taking it up with her.

-End flash back-

"And that's what happened." Louise said sadly.

Cleo shook her head. This still didn't make sense. "Then how did Emma find it? I always assumed she found it where Gracie threw it."

"She found it where I threw it." Miss Chatham confessed. "Gracie called me to come see her when she was on her death bed. We hadn't seen each other in years but she said she had a favor to ask of me. So I came and she gave me the locket and told me to throw it back into the moon pool."

"Why?" Cleo wanted to know.

"She didn't want anyone in her family to have it." Miss Chatham explained.

So, Cleo thought sadly to herself, that's what really happened to Gracie.

Late that night in her room, Cleo sat on her bed holding the locket in her hand, rubbing her fingers over the little stone on the top of it. She was sorry about what happened to Gracie. But she was determined not to let her own life be like that. She was going to be happy to be a mermaid. She wasn't going to give up the fight. She wasn't going to let her fear of others run her life. From now on, she was going to be stronger.

-The end-


End file.
